Simon Cowell was no doubt delighted with the publicity for The X Factor when
the Chinese ambassador to London, Fu Ying, disclosed recently that she was a
fan of the television talent contest.

By Richard Eden

10:52PM GMT 14 Nov 2009

He may be less pleased, however, to learn that Madam Fu does not fancy the 50-year-old personality's chances of taking the show to her homeland.

"He is too old," she told Mandrake at The Spectator's Paliamentarian of the Year Awards, at Claridge's, in Mayfair. "In China, there is great respect for older people, but television is dominated by the young. They are the ones who use mobile phones and things like that."

"One was from the Prime Minister and one was from a civil servant explaining the Prime Minister's letter," he says. "It came in a plain brown envelope with the name handwritten and the address spelt wrongly."

The Prince of Wales – an apology

Following last Sunday's story ("Charles goes on health drive after hospital scare") Clarence House has asked us to make it clear that the Prince of Wales was not rushed to hospital in the summer. Nor were there any fears he was having a heart attack. The hospital visit of which we were informed was a routinely scheduled check-up.